My trip to Europe was paid for by BruCON <http://2010.brucon.org/index.php/Main_Page>, and annual hacker conference in Brussels, Belgium, which is branching out this year from security to other diverse hacking activities. I’ll be giving a talk there on how to bring your project from idea to reality, and how to make a living on your project. I’ll also be setting up a Hardware Hacking Area, teaching people to solder and to make cool things with micrcocontrollers.

While in Belgium, I’ll also be visiting three hackerspaces in the area, giving workshops and talks.

And while I’m out here in Europe, Hacktivity <http://hacktivity.hu/portal/en>, an annual Eastern European hacker conference paid for my trip to and from Eastern Europe, where I’ll be setting up a Hardware Hacking Area.

While in Eastern Europe, I thought I’d put out the word and see if any of the brand new hackerspaces would like me to give workshops at their spaces. The response was very enthusiastic, and I set up a tour of four hackerspaces!

Everywhere I go, hackers are graciously putting me up in their homes. I feel really grateful to be part of such a warm, welcoming, community of hackers.

As with my other tours, the workshops on this tour give anyone and everyone the opportunity to learn to solder by making any number of kits that me and Jimmie Rodgers and Ladyada and others have created to teach people to make cool things with microcontrollers — kits that are designed so that everyone, regardless of age or skill level, can complete successfully and take home with them. It is very similar to what I do when I’m home (and what Miloh does all the other times) at Circuit Hacking Mondays at Noisebridge . The workshops also help build publicity for the hackerspaces that host the workshops by attracting people to the space, and showing everyone how cool it is to have a hackerspace in their home town.

Sharing experiences about our hackerspaces is also a big part of how hackerspaces around the world help and support each other, and I’ll be sharing all I can about Noisebridge and how we got going and make things work out.

Other than reimbursement for air fare from the hacker conferences, I am doing this Workshop Tour without charge, and only ask to be reimbursed for any parts used ($10 to $30, depending on the kit). I do this ’cause I love it!

I am looking forward to meeting more of the coolest, intelligent, thoughtful, friendly, creative people in the world — hackerspace people!

After being on the road since the beginning of July, 2010, I’m in Toronto, my second stop on my Midwest Tour of Hackerspaces which will last throughout the month of August. (This trip started with setting up a Hardware Hacking Area at RMLL in Bordeaux, France <http://2010.rmll.info/spip.php?lang=en>, followed by setting up a Hardware Hacking Area at Ninjacon in Vienna, Austria (formerly Plumbercon) <http://plumbercon.org/>.)

My first stop was the Detroit Maker Faire <http://makerfaire.com/detroit/2010/>, where 22,000 people gathered to check out over 300 exhibits, enthusiastically sharing, learning, and teaching through making cool things. I led a panel on hackerspaces both days of the Faire — both with standing room only. Hackerspaces are really popular now! There are way more hackerspaces in the Midwest alone, than time to visit all of them in a month. This is an exciting time to be a geek!

From now (4-August) till the end of the month, me and Jimmie and Matt Mets (of Hack PGH <http://www.hackpittsburgh.org/> — who will be joining us for the rest of the tour after Canada) will be giving 14 workshops at that many hackerspaces around the Midwest.

The workshops will give anyone and everyone the opportunity to learn to solder by making any number of kits that me and Jimmie have created to teach people to make cool things with microcontrollers — kits that are designed so that everyone, regardless of age or skill level, can complete successfully and take home with them. It is very similar to what I do when I’m home (and what Miloh does all the other times) at Circuit Hacking Mondays at Noisebridge <https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Circuit_Hacking_Monday>. The workshops also help build publicity for the hackerspaces that host the workshops by attracting people to the space, and showing everyone how cool it is to have a hackerspace in their home town.

I also share any and all experiences with the hackerspaces I visit about how we started and run Noisebridge.

Me and Jimmie and Matt are doing this without charge, and only ask to be reimbursed for any parts used ($10 to $30, depending on the kit).

As we go from city to city, hackers host us, and we meet some of the coolest, intelligent, thoughtful, friendly, creative people in the world — hackerspace people!

While traveling I hope to have time to blog more about our experiences here on this Noisebridge blog. Jimmie will be adding his thoughts to the blog on his website. And Matt will be blogging about it and posting it to the Makezine website.

For three days, 400 people created projects, attended presentations, and made cool things at Codebits, the annual hacker conference in Lisbon. It is put on by SAPO, the Portuguese phone company. They flew me out here to set up a Hardware Hacking Area. And they asked me to give a presentation. I asked if I should do a talk on hacker spaces or on making a living doing what you love. They asked if I could do both. I did.

They were both very well received. Many people told me they were inspired by one or the other, which is about the best compliment. The videos are at the above links.

I also set up and ran a Hardware Hacking Area throughout the three days of the conference. 49 people out of the 400 attendees made one of my kits — about half of them TV-B-Gone kits. So, there are currently more TVs being turned Off in Portugal.

Now I get to hang out in Lisbon for a few days, before heading to Singapore on Wednesday, where I’ll talk about hackerspaces again.

It’s Portuguese Independence Day, and as I write, fireworks are going off like crazy outside my window, overlooking what looks similar to the Golden Gate Bridge, but was called Salazar Bridge, after the scary dictator (but renamed to 25 de Abril Bridge, in more recent finer times).

I got here today. Rather than sleep, which is my MO on planes, I worked on my presentations for Codebits, which I’ll be giving Thusday and Friday — the one Thursday is about how to start a hackerspace, and Noisebridge will, of course, be the focus.

The CNET story about Noisebridge hit the interwebs. It’s a very decent story:

I’m about to fly to Lisbon from Chicago. But while in Chicago for the last 3 days I hung out at Pumping Station: One. The previous time I was at PS:1 was a few days after they got their space (I did their first FRED talk). The space is way lived in now! A really great group of people.

Saturday night was their hackathon. About 30 people were there hacking away. I left at about 1am, and there were still lots of people there! Many stayed till 9am.

Aestetix was there, too. He and Eric (the founder of PS:1) and several others are working on a collaborative hackerspace project that will be revealed at 26C3. It is a really cool project that will encourage more collaboration and community amongst hackerspaces around the world.

Eric and some other people on the board of PS:1 are talking about starting a non-profit foundation that will help promote hackerspaces in the US. More on this later, as it gells…

From now till the beginning of February I’ll be traveling around the world, going to hacker conferences, giving presentations, setting up Hardware Hacking Areas, leading workshops, and visiting hackerspaces everywhere I go.

At the moment I’m at my brothers house in Chicago, where I need to write the two presentations that I’ll be giving at Codebits, in Lisbon — the hacker conference put on by the Portuguese phone company (and I’m currently procrastinating by writing this blog post!).

Today I’ll prepare the presentation I’ll be giving on Thursday, 3-December, at Codebits, which is entitled: The Hackerspace Movement. This, of course, will include lots about Noisebridge. And I’m hoping that it will inspire someone(s) to start a hackerspace in Lisbon. Here’s the abstract on the Codebits website:

Tomorrow I’ll prepare the presentation that I’ll be giving on Friday, 4-December at Codebits, entitled: Make A Living Doing What You Love: How to Bring Your Project From Idea To Reality. This will include photos from the recent Noisebridge China Trip. Here’s the abstract on the Codebits website:

All throughout the Codebits hacker conference I’ll be teaching people to solder and to make cool things at the Hardware Hacking Area that I’ll set up there when I arrive on Tuesday.

One of the cool things about Codebits is the 24 Hour Competition, which is a 24-hour period where people who wish to will initiate and (hopefully) finish a project, which they will have 2 minutes to present on the last day of the conference. Prizes are given to the people (or teams) who create the coolest projects. Anyone who wants to can make use of the Hardware Hacking Area, and I’ll be there to help everyone. It shold be way fun!

Last Monday was the last time I’ll be leading Circuit Hacking Monday at Noisebridge for several weeks. It was lots of fun! There were almost 40 people there, making TV-B-Gones, Trippy RGB Waves, Arduino clone kits, and other cool kits that I created to teach people how to make things with electronics. Several people learned to solder for the first time! Some people brought in their own cool projects to work on. And some people brought in their old, broken electronics that are now working again, thanks to the helpful geeks at Noisebridge.

While I’m gone, Miloh will be leading Circuit Hacking Monday workshops.

Over the next several weeks I’ll be traveling the planet, giving talks and workshops everywhere I go: Lisbon, Singapore, Berlin, NYC, Boston, and hopefully other places out East where I’ll be visiting (Philly, Baltimore, DC).